The Big Sur Ride- Day 1

Last weekend a group of us traveled down the coast to ride in the Big Sur Ride, a gorgeous and difficult 2 day ride. We started out around 7:15 am or so, about 15 of us, out from Carmel Valley and on toward Hwy. 1. Once on 1, we headed south for most of the day. The first rest stop was at Rocky Point Restaurant, a popular site that sits right on the cliffs above the Pacific. It was an absolutely clear morning. It was nice that they had drop bags so we could take off our arm warmers, leg warmers and jackets, toss them in a bag and they would take them to our camp that night.


The ride is pretty spectacular, day one is mostly rolling hills (ok looong rolling hills) with some awesome downhills in places as well. We had a lot of views like this one for most of the ride day:
I hadn't ridden a long ride since the trek up Haleakala, so I knew I had to take it easy for the first 50 miles otherwise I would be totally burnt by the time I hit Nacimiento Road at about mile 70... So we took our time and took lotsa pictures along the way:

There was no lack of food on this ride, although they did run out of sandwiches at the 2nd rest stop. That was partly our fault because we were late, due to the fact that we stopped at the Big Sur Bakery on the way to rest stop 2.

Marybeth was determined to get up Nacimiento Road this year (last year she was halfway up and they made her sag to the top). All that training on Mt. Diablo paid off, she easily made it up to the top. She did have a mishap on the way down though, hitting a pothole and crashing. Luckily she was descending slowly, since one of the ride vehicles had just passed her. Such a bummer, she was ok although a bit bruised and sore the next day, and she did get a bit of a scrape on her arm. (see the pink bandage on her left arm in the above picture)

Nacimiento Road is a loooong 7 mile climb, and not only is it rather steep in places, it also comes at about mile 70 of the 90 mile day. The only thing I had going for me was that I had climbed Haleakala 2 weeks ago, and I had also done this climb two times before. Mentally I knew what to expect. That was the only thing that got me thru.... well ok, that and Michael would stop and wait for me from time to time on the way up.
I finally made it up the 7 miles in a little more than 2 hours (yes it was that steep).... Mike, Charlie, Chris and Kimball were there at the top waiting for us. It's nice to get to the top and have someone there cheering for you. The downhill is long and curvy, eventually getting you to the gate at Fort Hunter Liggett, where we had dinner and camped for the night. We actually got to bed at 8:30pm and slept til 5:30am!!! heck that's more sleep than I get at home....